Grammar is the strength of the English language. Its incorrect usage can kill the meaning of a sentence. Generally, people get confused between prepositions, such as “at, in, and on”. A preposition is one of the most important parts of speech. A preposition is a word that shows the relation between a word and a noun or a pronoun that comes after the preposition. Understanding prepositions are important for a strong grammatical base.
There are three types of preposition, namely:
1. Preposition of place
2. Preposition of time
3. Preposition of movement
Let’s learn prepositions of time. Prepositions of time include at, on, in, by, till, until, up to, during, for, throughout and since.
Learning the prepositions - at, on, and in
We use “at” for a precise time, “in” for months, years, centuries and long periods and “on” for days and dates.
|
At |
In |
On |
|
At 3 o'clock
|
In September |
On Tuesday |
|
At sunrise
|
In Winter |
On Sunday |
|
At noon
|
In the Summer |
On 7 May |
|
At bedtime
|
in 2000 |
On 12th September |
|
At the moment
|
In the past/future
|
On the New Year’s Eve |
|
At 10.30am
|
in the next century |
On Independence Day |
|
At sunset
|
In the Ice Age
|
On my birthday |
|
At dinner time
|
In 1992
|
On 31st July 1990 |
Examples
- I have a meeting at 5 PM
- The shop closes at 8 o'clock
- Shilpa went home at 7:30 PM
- In Mumbai, it often rains in June
- Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future?
- There should be a lot of progress in the next century.
- Do you work on Sundays?
- His birthday is on 31 July.
- Where will you be on Valentine’s Day?
Preposition of time ‘at’ in the following regular expressions:
|
Expression |
|
Example |
|
At night |
|
The stars shine at night. |
|
At the same time |
|
We finished the test at the same time. |
|
At present |
|
He's not home at present. Try later. |
Preposition of time in and on in the following regular expressions:
|
In |
On |
|
In the morning |
On a Monday morning |
|
In the mornings |
On Sunday mornings |
|
In the afternoon(s) |
On Saturday afternoon(s) |
|
In the evening(s) |
On Friday evening(s) |
When you use ‘last, next, every, this’ in your sentence, don’t use at, in, on.
- I went to Delhi last (notin last June)
- He's coming back next (noton next Monday)
- I go home every (notat every Easter)
- We'll call you this (notin this evening)
The above-mentioned examples of prepositions will help you complete the sentence formation. Keep practicing these prepositions and improve your communication skills by using them appropriately. You can study them with the help of an online English guide that will help you improve and develop your English grammar skills.
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